Helen O'Connell was an American singer, actress, and hostess, described as "the quintessential big band singer of the 1940s." O'Connell launched her career as a big-band singer with Larry Funk and his Band of a Thousand Melodies. She was singing with Funk's band in Greenwich Village when Jimmy Dorsey's manager discovered her. O'Connell joined the Dorsey band in 1939 and achieved her best selling... show more